Hoffman v. VA addresses a specific effective-date problem: a veteran filed an intent to file (ITF) in February 2023, then within that year filed a continuously pursued supplemental claim (a claim for the same benefit filed within a year of an earlier denial) for kidney disease, hearing loss, and Meniere's disease, and separately filed a new initial claim for stroke residuals and erectile dysfunction. VA granted the stroke and ED claims plus special monthly compensation, but set the effective date as the date of that new claim rather than tying it back to the February 2023 ITF. VA's reasoning was that the ITF had already been "used" by the supplemental claim under 38 C.F.R. § 3.155(d)(1)(ii).
The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims rejected that approach. It held that Congress already set the date-of-application rule for continuously pursued supplemental claims — that date is fixed as the date of the initial application for that benefit — so "applying the ITF framework to that kind of supplemental claim adds nothing." Worse, the court said, using an ITF this way "can hurt the veteran by nullifying an ITF that otherwise would support an earlier effective date on a later claim filed within the same 1-year period." The court therefore held VA "may not apply § 3.155(d)(1)(ii) to associate a continuously pursued supplemental claim with an ITF when doing so would provide no effective-date benefit." Because the Board did exactly that, it erred in denying an earlier effective date for the stroke and ED grants.
Official 2026 VA monthly compensation, including the 2.8% COLA increase.
Dependent add-ons start at a 30% rating. Child-only and dependent-parent rates: see the full 2026 pay chart.
| Rating | Monthly (2026, incl. 2.8% COLA) |
|---|---|
| 10% | $180.42 |
| 20% | $356.66 |
| 30% | $552.47 |
| 40% | $795.84 |
| 50% | $1,132.90 |
| 60% | $1,435.02 |
| 70% | $1,808.45 |
| 80% | $2,102.15 |
| 90% | $2,362.30 |
| 100% | $3,938.58 |
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Analyze my claim free →The source text does not state a specific new effective date VA must assign, only that the Board's denial of an earlier date was erroneous and that the case involves benefits tied to the July 21, 2023, claim date the Board had used.
For context, of appealed VA effective-date decisions in VetAid's library with a recorded outcome, 44% were vacated or remanded, 30% affirmed, and 10% reversed or granted outright — though these are appellate outcomes in already-appealed cases, not odds for a new claim.
If you have a pending claim where you filed an ITF and later filed both a supplemental claim and a separate new claim within that same year, ask VA or your representative to confirm your ITF was applied to whichever claim actually benefits from it, and consider raising Hoffman if your effective date was set by the date of a later claim instead of your ITF date.
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